Avoid the Road to Damascus Martha Kessler, Martha Kessler, a senior Middle East analyst with the CIA until her retirement in 2000, is the author of "Syria: A Fragile Mosaic of Power" (Government Printing Office, 1988).

Reelection? Father Didn't Know Best Robert B. Reich, Robert B. Reich, secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, is a professor of social and economic policy at Brandeis University. A longer version of this article will appear in the May issue of American Prospect.